ICC Punishes Mashrafe Mortaza & Danushka Gunathilaka For Aggressive Send Offs

The International Cricket Council, on Sunday (January 28), fined and reprimanded Bangladesh captain Mashrafe Mortaza and Sri Lanka opener Danushka Gunathilaka respectively for breaching Article 2.1.7 of the ICC Code of Conduct for Players and Player Support Personnel during the tri-series final in Mirpur.

Mortaza was fined 20 percent of his match fee while Gunathilaka was reprimanded for breaching Level 1 of the ICC Code of Conduct as both the players accumulated one demerit point to their disciplinary records. The players admitted to their offences and accepted the sanctions proposed by match referee David Boon.

Mashrafe faced the punishment for giving a questionable send off to Kusal Mendis in the sixth over of Sri Lanka’s innings, yelling while running close to him in a “manner that could have provoked an aggressive reaction,” stated an ICC release. On the other hand, Gunathilaka gave Tamim Iqbal a send-off in the sixth over of the chase.

This was Gunathilaka’s first offence, while it was Mortaza’s second offence since the introduction of the demerit-point system in September 2016, having had received one earlier during the home ODIs against England in October 2016.

Sri Lanka wins tri-series:

After a forgettable 2017 where they suffered three 5-0 whitewashes in addition to losing a series at home against Zimbabwe, Sri Lanka started the new year on a promising note, beating Bangladesh by 79 runs to win the tri-series which also featured Zimbabwe.

Batting first, the Islanders could post only a modest total of 221. However, the score turned out to be more than enough in the end as Sri Lanka’s bowlers came up with a brilliant show to dismiss the hosts for just 142 in the 42nd over.